Political Manana Habit

Like what some foreigners accuse the Filipino of always doing, even in politics, we do that same old habit–that is manana. Our political situation actually calls us to decisively act to change things but we are indulging in procrastination. We know there’s really something seriously wrong with how our government is running things yet, we go our own usual ways, ignoring the obvious signs and doing our everyday chores with apparent gusto. Such is the way things are and though we live in a modern world, our habits remain conspiciously Iberian. Not that I hate Iberians (Portuguese and Spanish), but we seem to fail to grasp that even Spaniards and Portuguese nowadays have abandoned their manana habit when it comes to governance and exhibited French style-revolutionary streaks just to correct things.

I actually liken our situation right now to this:

Picture yourself, your friends and almost everybody sitting in one theater. A Magician was there, holding flaming knives. His woman performer is strapped in this huge wheel. He strikes and hits the woman in her forehead. Blood flows. Magician rushes to woman and leaves flaming knives on the floor. One of the knives torches a blind and in an instant the entire stage has been lit on fire.

If you’re one of the audience, what would you do? Will you go get fire extinguishers? Will you help the woman and the magician? In most cases, people will be stupefied and will not immediately take action. People will wait for someone to rise from his seat first before they’ll do something as fundamentally intrinsic as saving their own lives.